A Dialogue
by usernamemidnightblue
Summary: Alternate Universe. Modern time. It was the last thing he expected to happen tonight. To see her again. "How else is this night going to turn out? Did you expect that we would just slide past each other with only a hi and a little nod between us?"


Disclaimer: I do not own Uchiha Madara or any other characters in the Naruto series.

Note: Reviews and comments are greatly appreciated.

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"What are you doing here?"

"It looks as if you're not surprised to see me."

"I'm not at all surprised to see you; however, it did not occur to me that you would choose the women's lavatory to say hi."

"Indeed, it is out of my character to rendezvous with you like this."

"One could say you were desperate enough to come at me in this way."

"Desperate times call for desperate measures."

"Hmmm. You're mistaken though. I did not agree to meet you here.

"In fact, I would have preferred not to be here at all."

"Ah, I see now. It's because of friendship, isn't it? You could never stand not being able to show your support

to your friends, thus, here you are at their wedding anniversary."

"That and admiration. Yes, admiration of their love, their love for each other.

"You seem to forget I'm quite the romantic."

"Oh, I haven't forgotten. I haven't forgotten anything about you.

"In fact, I have done nothing but think about you every second for the last 4 years."

As I have. Even until now.

"How did you know I was here?"

"It was not that hard considering you never use a crowded restroom, so I just went to the nearest less crowded one.

"As it happened, it's on the second floor and it's empty except for you, and me."

"I can see you're pleased with this arrangement."

"Infinitely so, yes, an empty room away from nuisance. I could do whatever I want.

"For however long that may be."

"You always get what you want."

"Not always." Not you.

"You certainly thought I would be here tonight. I could even say you were expecting to see me."

"Yes, I did expect you to attend your best friend's wedding anniversary. Although, I still considered you won't

because you clearly disliked gatherings such as these, as I remember from before."

"You're right, of course. I would not have considered coming here at all, were it not for an incentive."

"An incentive?"

"Hashirama told me they sent you an invitation."

"I never thought an invitation was all it took to get you to attend these things."

"It was not the invitation, per se; it was having the chance to see you."

"The chance to see me? I don't understand. You're a man who doesn't do things without calculating its probability of success.

"You don't leave things to chance."

"This time I did." And it was worth it.

"I was definitely relieved when I finally saw you tonight."

"I imagine it's because your gamble with chance paid off?"

"Yes. At first, I decided looking at you from afar would be enough to satisfy my longing of you. Apparently, just a sight of you hadn't been enough.

"After countless nights of dreaming your face to sleep, I now had the opportunity of touching your face again."

"Like a moth drawn to the flame, you went and became reckless.

"You, of all people, should know how dangerous it is not to know when to stop being greedy.

"I just hope you will not get burned in the process. But then, I suppose, you never were reckless.

"You never felt failure and fear of not getting what you want."

"You're wrong on that point. For the first time in my life, I was afraid.

"I was afraid that I wouldn't get to you in time, to touch you and hold you in my arms, before you disappear from my life once again."

"And yet here I am."

"Yes, within arms reach. Did you know what I thought when I saw you tonight standing by the married couple,

giving them your thanks and best wishes?"

"No."

"I thought of how good we would be together, as a married couple, as parents."

"Now that would seem rather surprising coming from you."

"Why is that?"

"I never thought that you would think to get married. Let alone have children.

"You've clearly made a big assumption by the way."

"About what?"

"About us getting married. About me being your wife. I dare say these four years have made you idealistic."

"You could say that but I prefer confident."

"You were always confident. It has made you what you are today. Why your name is associated with success, money, and respect.

"Yet, you were never this…"

"Reckless?"

"Uncontrolled. Uncomposed."

"Definitely out of my character, yes? On the other hand, you do realize that this meeting is inevitable."

This is getting dangerous.

"Is it?"

"How else is this night going to turn out? Did you expect that we would just slide past each other with only a hi and a little nod between us?"

"No interaction at all would have been better. It would have presented lesser complications."

"Complications?"

"For both of us. However, as you have pointed out earlier, this meeting has been made inevitable because you _made_ it happen.

"What with all that you said about not satisfying your longing from afar. Not entirely surprising though.

"After all you are Uchiha Madara, the one who can make things happen."

"Leaving so soon, are we?"

"I can't think of any reason to stay."

Stay for me. Stay _with_ me.

"But we haven't even done what it is that we came here for."

"And pray what is that?"

"To talk."

"What have we been doing all this time?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!"

"Still with the hot-temper, I see."

"Some habits are very hard to break."

I know. You _are_ my habit that I'm still trying to break, futilely.

"Well, if you must know, I didn't come to the lavatory to talk. As you can see, this is hardly the place to have a conversation."

"Don't be obtuse with me."

"Be that as it may, I must go now."

"You know I won't let you leave."

"Why not? You had your chance to see me. We talked. Is there anything else left to do?"

"You can't leave."

"Hashirama and Mito would be probably wondering where we are now. It would be rude to worry them."

"I don't care about them!"

"Madara, this is not the right time and place."

"It is because I say it is."

"There is nothing left to talk about."

"I know you know that's not true."

"We are not doing this! Do you honestly think having this conversation would make all that has happened alright?

"Four years worth of demons of the past all vanquished from this mere tête-à-tête?"

"You insult me by suggesting I am that naïve to expect such a thing to happen overnight!"

"Am I? Then tell me what you hope to gain from this. As far as I can see, we are already hurting each other when we have barely begun.

"There's nothing to gain but pain, regret, and sadness.

"And if that's all there is to it, then I'll gladly pass up this chance of a bitter reunion.

"I would rather part as old friends, or civil acquaintances, whichever you prefer.

"Because, believe me, it is so much better to see you with cold politeness towards me than seeing you with such pain and sorrow in your eyes

when I know I was the one who put them there."

"Damn it! Why do you have to be so good? How can you be so generous?

"Even after all this time… You're still –

"How can you stand there, so beautiful and vulnerable, yet still manage to wrench my heart out? Still putting my feelings first?

"You disarm me by saying such things to me. You leave me defenseless with just a – "

"Don't… say another word.

"We have to stop. This has to stop. Now. While we still can."

While I can still hold the pieces of my heart together.

"I don't want us to stop. I do not want us to be polite or civil to one another. I do not even want us to be just friends. I want –"

"You want more. You want what we had four years ago. You want everything back the way it was before!

"Well, let me you this: you want the impossible!"

"Yes! I am not ashamed to admit that I want it all back. I am not ashamed to be greedy for things I want for myself.

"I am not embarrassed to confess that I need you so badly in my life!

"I have been told time and time again about how I could never get the impossible. Even so, you should know better than that.

"I have been achieving the impossible all my life. How could _this_ be any different?"

"Things cannot be like it was before because what you're asking from me is impossible.

"You say you need me but I know you do not.

"You need affection, security, trust, companionship, understanding, and happiness.

"Things I cannot give you. Not this time.

"So much time has passed. Too many things have happened.

"I am not even certain there is something left of me to give after the wake of our whirlwind relationship.

"And how about you? You have been declaring all these things that you want and need.

"Have you ever thought about mine? Are you even prepared to give me the things that I need?"

"No, of course not! You've been busy caring only about what you want, what you need, how to get them.

"Did you even stop and think why we broke apart four years ago?" Why I left you that night?

Sigh.

"What do you need?"

Silence.

"It wasn't relief I felt. Earlier. When I saw you again. Not at first anyway.

"When I saw you, I felt exactly the same thing I did when I realized that I loved you.

"That you were my home and my heart. I felt peace and warmth.

"Then I quickly realized nothing good would come out should we meet again.

"But no matter, now that you are here, I ask only one thing from you: let me go."

"L-"

"You heard me. Meeting you again, talking with you again, and being this close to you again is not good for me.

"I thought that what strength and courage I gathered through the years I haven't seen you would be enough to face you.

"But all that deserted me the moment I saw you across the room.

"Strength left my knees so weak I thought I would fall at my feet.

"Courage vaporized to smoke leaving my heart beating so fast I swore it would jump out of my chest!

"You still affect me just as much as you did four years ago, like it was still yesterday.

"And I just –

"I don't want to feel so… helpless anymore."

"You think it's not the same for me?!

"Do you think that I don't feel the same intensity, if not more, of longing, desire, care, and love for you?

"Did you think that I wouldn't feel envy when I saw you bestow another man your smiles earlier during the party?

"Did you think it was easy for me to see you have another man embrace you just as I had, when you were dancing earlier?

"What it was like for me to dream of you each night, wishing you would be there beside me the next morning?

"To know too late that I love you but you were gone?

"You know you have the same power over me.

"You can easily break me as I can you."

Silence.

"Complications... So are you?"

"Am I what?"

"Giving me what I need?"

"Haven't you heard what I just said? I said I love you."

"And I love you. But that doesn't assure me that you will give me the only thing I asked from you."

"Loving you and letting you go are two essentially different things."

"It's a no then. I should have known that would have been your answer.

"And here I thought four years would have made us wiser."

"We are."

"Four years ago, I was naïve! Now, it seems I am still naïve and stupid enough to believe you'll see things the way they are!

"I guess there's no more reason to prolong this conversation any longer."

"Is that it? Are we done just like that? Are you basically walking away?"

"What more do you want me to say? We have talked more than what was necessary.

"We have inflicted to and suffered from each other anguish and hurt ever since we started this talk.

"We were both unable to meet the demands that we have made from each other.

"And frankly, I don't even have the energy to tell you I told you so."

"I had hoped this would get us closer to smoothening out the wrinkles between us."

"The wrinkles between us. There are no wrinkles between us, only a huge crack breaking us apart."

"Then I'll just leap to your side of the crack."

"Nothing is simple as just deciding to take a leap, at least not in our case. You don't believe in taking a leap of faith." And I stopped believing anymore.

"Why not? It has worked in my favor so far."

"Only so far this time. Sooner than later, you'll begin to doubt if the odds will still be in your favor. Then everything will crumble."

Sigh.

"We should have never exchanged words so carelessly tonight."

"The proverbial moth burning in the flame."

"Consider this my last request to you then:

"Let me go. Don't try to find me. Just live your life the way you want it and I would do the same.

"Whatever happened between us let it stay in the past."

"You know you have ruined me for other women. There is no one else but you, nor will there ever be!"

"Goodbye, Madara."

"I will find you and when I do, know that I will never let you go."

I…

I will be waiting.

-NOTHING FOLLOWS-


End file.
